Elevate Briefing: A Story of Disintermediation

Communications and marketing insights by Rick Kupchella and the Informed Engagement Network – May 31, 2018.

The core of what we do at i.e. network is simple. We help brands tell their story in a compelling way, then distribute that story – in a highly targeted manner – for audiences most likely to engage.

This briefing is part of a monthly series we’re putting together, aimed at communications and marketing leaders charged with improving business performance. Today’s piece was inspired by a CMOs workshop conducted recently at IEN, and is anchored by a related article we produced in our collaboration with Forbes.

It focuses on the underlying catalyst for today’s content marketing: disintermediation.

Something near and dear to my former media colleagues – being among the first to be seriously disintermediated in today’s digital world.

It’s a scary reality – industry landscapes disrupted left and right, the destruction of businesses that until recently looked stable.

From the network: The Echo Effect

Cargill had a new line of business development it wanted to pursue, and asked i.e. network to engage potential customers. So our social intelligence team uncovered more than 100 key influencers among dozens of important, corporate clients.

i.e. network then produced content we knew would resonate, shared it with those people – and watched it take off. The echo could be tracked in real time, spreading outward from those 100 initial influencers, reaching more and more eyeballs.

How did Cargill know it was working? Because the businesses they were seeking to connect with reached out to them – proactively – after seeing the content that was produced.